I mean, this year is toast, no doubt about that, I just don't buy the doom and gloom that says "oh, we're definitely not going to be any good until 2017-2018 at earliest." I mean, sure, maybe that happens, but the Sox will have enough payroll flexibility coming off the books that a few savvy moves here or there and they could be a decent team quicker than most think.

The division is going to be open again sooner than people think, IMO, as well. Detroit is very, very good right now, no doubt, but they're not built to last right now. Verlander's looking somewhat human already, having his worst season in 7 years... Maybe it's just a fluke bad half or maybe it's the wear and tear of pitching over 1,000 innings the last 4 seasons... Cabrera and Prince are both on the wrong side of 30 by next May... Their farm system is currently rated as bad, if not worse, than ours.

I could buy the idea that the Sox need to do a total teardown if they had to compete with the likes of the Yankees or Rangers or Cardinals every year, but right now that doesn't look like the case. Just got to find some better ****ing players. If we were getting even average production THIS YEAR from say, 2-3 extra players, we're probably right in this thing now as is.

I do think management has a big decision they need to make quickly. Because if they think they need to get 2-3 better positional players to turn it around, then it is important they don't deplete their foundation of pitching. You mentioned the Detroit turnaround of 10 years ago. They had good young positional players in 2004 when they started rebuilding ( Inge-Granderson-Rodriguez-Guillen) and no pitching. They kept them and went out and got pitching via trades and draft.